Take Me Home
by Paper pens and ink
Summary: After the events at the arcade, Richie needs to clear his head before he spirals out of control. So, he visits the one person who can do just that.


The words kept resonating in his head, getting louder and louder with every echo. "Get the fuck out of here faggot!" God... he fucking hated Bowers stupid face, with his stupid mullet and his stupid tank tops. He wished nothing more but to stick it to him but he knew that, although he always acted tough and unbothered, there was no way he could ever muster up the courage to stand up to him. Why had he been so careless?! Bower's cousin, out of everyone he could have chosen to hang out with, and maybe flirt a little, he had to go with the cousin of the most notorious bully in Derry.

He beat himself up for what seemed like hours while he was laying in bed, looking out the window where day quickly became night. A stream of moonlight was shining directly into his eyes, forcing him to shield himself with his hand. He was still shaking from his prior encounter with both the clown and that giant lumberjack but somehow, it was Bowers words that kept playing over and over in his head. Something about it seemed more real to him, as if they could never truly defeat the cloud of homophobia that weighs down on Derry. The clown, although terrifying and disturbing, seemed so powerful that he had to have a weak spot, he had to. But really it was the fact that they were seven against Pennywise, unlike his ongoing battle with homophobia that he had to go through alone.

Fuck this. Fuck Bowers. Fuck everything. Why would he have to be held up in his room feeling bad about himself when he could be hanging out with... hanging out with... fuuuuuuck. He knew exactly who he wanted to see right now but he couldn't think about him right now ; he already felt like shit. His face suddenly felt really hot, in fact, his entire body was burning up. Although he tried his best keep his mind from going there, Eddie's face kept appearing in his mind. Poor kid, he probably got picked on by Bowers all the time due to his long list of medical problems and his very clear mommy issues. He knew he could never rid the town of the evil that lives within it, clown or no clown. He knew he could never change that but a part of him ached whenever he thought about the future that awaited him, if and only if he even had a future. Fuck it. If he didn't have a future, he might as well live in the present. He kicked his legs out of bed, reached for his glasses and fumbled around his room looking for a button-up that wasn't soaked in sweat and tears. As he was doing so, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He looked like shit, and that's an understatement. His eyes were puffy, his nose was red, his hair looked like a mop had a running in with a blender and his body looked weak and broken. He stared at the face he couldn't recognize until he finally decided that the Losers probably look as beaten up as him, so it didn't really matter.

He was immediately met with a cool breeze as he quietly stepped out of his house. The sky was a deep blue and the moon peeked through the thick clouds and he squinted and looked around for his bike. Eddie didn't live that far away but, after today, his stomach churned at the idea of riding alone at night with It and Bower's gang on the loose. He peddled pretty quickly, as if trying to escape from the world he desperately wanted to leave behind. If he could never look back, he would. He'd keep peddling until he was on the other side of the surface of the earth, far away from Derry, far away from his parents, the arcade, the sewers, all of it. But something was holding him back, rather someone.

Before he knew it, he was pulling up at Eddie's house, careful not to cause a ruckus since Mrs. Kaspbrak would most definitely tell him to get lost. He didn't need another confrontation today- or ever really. He threw his bike in the bushes and grabbed a few pebbles in the grass. He chucked one towards Ed's window and immediately winced at the clicking sound it made. Shit. Shit. Shit. He couldn't risk waking up the Jabberwocky, no matter how soundly she usually slept. He had a gift for ruining everything at the worst possible moment. He reached for a smaller rock and through it at the wall next to the window, hoping the noise would be a little more muffled than on the glass. It worked, sorta. It barely was loud enough for him to hear so there was no way that would ever wake Eddie up. So he repeated the action a couple times until a few stray rocks accidentally made contact with the window, causing a grumpy, half-asleep Eds to swing it open. His messy head poked through and looked around the window, expecting an insect or something of the sort to be the source of the noise.

"Down below ol' chap!" Richie whispered rather loudly in his awful British accent he knew always gets a rise out of his friend.

"Richie? What the hell?! Go home you dick," his voice was too quiet to to have any impact whatsoever. His confusion made him look really cute, especially in the moonlight.

"Lets go do something, I can't sleep," Richie responded completely unbothered.

"Well I can" he frowns as he starts to close the window, only to receive a decently sized rock on his hand.

"Ow! What the hell is wrong with you?! That freaking hurt you know my hands are sensitive! "

"All if you is sensitive " he laughs, repressing a dick joke he knew it wasn't the time for.

"Come back tomorrow or smtg. You know I can't wake my mom up. She'd freak if she knew I'm not sleeping right now."

"She freaks at everything. Just come down, I need to clear my head."

"I already told you Rich-"

"Come on! I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important" he answered with a voice that came off as more vulnerable than he would have liked. He heard a sigh coming from his friend and looked up to see Eddie's legs poking out of the window. His friend landed next to him with a loud wince as he had just landed of his arm.

"Fuck Richie! I told you this was a bad idea! You newer fucking think, you're suck a selfish prick sometimes!"

"Want me to take a look?" He answers feeling a little guilty.

"Don't fucking touch me, don't!" He whisper-yells yanking his arm away from Richie. "I'm fine, let's just go."

"Alrighty then, your carriage awaits M'lady," Richie smirks as he gestures to his own bike.

"No way, I'd rather drop dead. Besides, with the way you ride I probably will."

"Shut It, you know damn well you can't ride with that arm so just get on." Richie watched as his Eds approches with pink cheeks, avoiding eye contact.

"Don't hold on too tight or you'll make your mom jealous. Only she's allowed to let her fingers linger there." He teases. With that, he was met with the expected "beep beep Richie" and a smack on the back of his head. But truthfully, he didn't really care since he was getting all hot at the feeling of Eddie's body pressing up against him and his spaghetti arm wrapped awkwardly around him. Eddie probably figured that both arms would have been too weird so he settle for a single arm around his friend's waist.

"What are you waiting for?" His voice brought Richie back to reality and he turned his head to face the boy behind him, smirked and started to peddle as fast as he could to annoy the hypochondriac. He felt the arm tightening around him and he could tell by the way Eds was breathing that his eyes were closed shut. He enjoyed the feeling of his arm pressing around him and the cool air on his face as he peddled through the night. The streets were empty and completely quiet, making Eddie's breathing and his beating heart seem that much louder. He slowly removed his hands from the steering and held them up dramatically as if he was on a rollercoaster. That earned a groan and a shirt tug from the body behind him, which he enjoyed, but he quickly placed his hands back since he wasn't used to the two-body weight distribution. He kept peddling into the night, following the path he knows as well as the back of his hand. And for a moment there, just a moment, he completely forgot about Bowers and all the other evil lurking in the shadows. For a moment there, he felt like himself, he was free, he was happy.


End file.
